Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-04-23
COMPETITIVE POINTS.
HOW THEY ARE AFFECTED RY
LONG AND SHORT HAULS.
The TranscOntinentaI Railroads Pc
tition the Interstate Commits
sion on the Subject.
lBY TELEGRAPH To THE REooRD-us1oS.l


before the Interstate Commerce Commits.
sion yesterday. The companies are united
in petitioning for the suspension of the
fourth section of the Interstate Commerce
Act, or that provision which prohibits the
charging of a greater rate for a short than
for long haul. The following is the peti
ton presented by Charles H Tweed, repre-.
senting the Southern Pacific Company:
To the Honorable Interstate Commerce COM
mission The petition of the Southern
Pacific Company respectfully represents
that this railroad company is engaged in
transportation of passengers and freight
between the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.
such transportation being conducted
through the various States and Territories
of the United States, as will. appear from
the map of lines opperated by it hereunto
annexed. Through transportation upon
such lines is necessarily conducted under
circumstances and conditions substantially
dissimilar from those upon which interstate
transportation is conducted In respect to
through transportation, your petitioner is
subject to competition with the Canadian
Pacific Railway Company, the Pacific Mail
Steamship Company and the clipper ships,
the tramp steamers and other vessels run
ming between Pacific and Atlantic ports,
some or all of which are beyond the con-
troll of your honorable Commission, in re-
spect to special rates for transportation and
their compensation with the lines of ysur
petitioner for traffic.
Your petitioner and the other companies
engaged IN the transportation of passengers
and freight between the Atlantic and Pa
cltc coasts have caused to be prepared two
tariffs for transcOntinental business, one
upon the assumption that the fourth section
of the Act creating this Com mission applies
to them, and the other upon the assump-
ton that such section does not apply to
cases in which there are competing
agencies, which are not answerable for
the operation of said law. In case your
petitioner shall adhere to the tariff for
transcontinental business prepared on the
assumption that such section of said Act
does not apply to cases in which competing
agencies enter which are not answerable
to the operation of this law, natural and
necessary result therefrom would be that
your petitioner would lose the whole, or bv
far, the greater part of its through trans
continental business, which would neces-
sarily be diverted to lines of the Canadian
Pacific Railway Company the Pacific Mail
Steamship Company, and the clipper ships,
tramp steamers and other vessels plying
between Atlantic and Pacific ports, and
such division of such traffic would take
place for the reason that the establishment
OF rates which would be reasonably or Justly
fixed for intermediate traffic would require
and necessitate the charging by your petit
toner of so high a rate on through traffic
as to be substantially prohibitory.
The effect of putting in operation the
tariff tor transcontinental business, pre-
pared on the assumption that the fourth
section of said Act did apply to cases in
which the competing companies enter,
which are not answerable TO the operation
of this law, has been that the through
transcontinental business of your petitioner
has, since the adoption of such tariff, been
reduced by at least 80 per cent, and the
amount of such through transcontinental
business now being done by your petitioner
is very inconsiderable.
On the other hand if the rates for inter-
mediate local traffic should be reduced to
rates not greater than those which are re-
quisite in order to enable your petitioner
to do any substantial part of the through
business, the whole earnings of the roads
operated by your petitioner would be
wholly inadequate to the payment of their
fixed charges. While your petitioner verify
believes that the circumstances and condi-
tions ofthe transportation of passengers and
freight for such through business are ac-
tually and substantially dissimilar from
| those under which the transportation of
passengers and freight in the course of in
termediate traffic has to be conducted, still
the penalties, which are prescribed under
said Act, are so stringent and severe that
your petitioner has not heretofore felt au-
thorized, without the assent of the Commits
| sion, to put in force such rates for
traffic for through transportation as are re-
quisite in order to enable your petitioner to
perform any substantial or important part
thereof, and it therefore respectfully in
vokes the action of this honorable Com
mission on its behalf and prays that in
case the above facts referred to, to wit in
respect to through transcontinental busi-
ness, your honorable Commission will au-
thorize your petitioner and other lines
associated with it in interest, to charge less
for longer than a shorter distance for the
transportation of passengers and property,
and will relieve your petitioner from the
operation of the fourth section of the Act
above referred to-
Your petitioner further shows that the
circumstances and conditions above set
forth are applicable not alone to through
transcontinental business between points
on the Atlantic coast and points on the Pa
cific coast, but also to business with poir. Is
in the interior and on the Mississippi and
Missouri rivers, the rates of freight to and
from which are controlled by water COM
petition in the same manner in which
water competition affects rates for traffic
between ports on the Atlantic seaboard and
ports on the Pacific coast, that is to say
First-Between San Francisco, Sacra-
mento, Stockton, Marysville, San Jose,
no yiand ~,
California; Portland and Astoria, in Ore
gon; Tacoma, in Washington Territory
Victoria, in British Columbia, and New
York, Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore,
Newport, Richmond and all points COM
monty rated with them or either of them.
Second-Between San Francisco. Sacra-
mento, Stockton, Marysville, San Jose,
Oakland, Los Angeles and San Diego, in
California; Portland and Astoria, in Ore
gon; Tacoma, in Washington Territory
Victoria, in British Columbia, and Chicago,
, st. Louis, Memphis New Orleans and all
points East.
Third-Between San Francisco, Sacra-
mento, Stockton, Marysville, San Jose,
Oakland, Los Angeles and San Diego. in
! California; Portland and Astoria, in Ore
gon Tacoma, in Washington Territory
Victoria, in British Columbia; Galveston
| and Houston, in Texas, and points on the
Mississippi river.
The first group are all subject to compe-
| tition with water carriers not restrained by
the interstate commerce laws. Those OF
the second and third groups are subject to
| competition by water carriers, because
goods can go from the points in each OF
those groups to the Atlantic ports, thence
to the ports named on the west coast, at
rates lower than those which have neces-
Sarily bpen DreSprihad for the intarp, adi iaf q
local traffic of your petitioners line, and
IN order to enable to pay fixed charges.
Furthermore, the products and manufact-
ures of products in the second and third
groups have to compete on the Pacific coast
with the same products and manufactures
of points in the first group. All points
named in each said three groups are subject
| to competition with the Canadian Pacific
| line. As a matter of fact, the Canadian